A
veteran college tennis coach known for his many international contacts in the
game, Jackson could easily build the Gators’ roster each year with talented
players from France or Italy or Germany or some other far away place.

Florida
is one of the sport’s top programs, loaded with resources and located in a
place known for plenty of sunshine. The Gators host this week’s SEC Tournament
for the first time in 12 years, featuring a roster heavy with in-state players
while the rest of the field is loaded with international players.

So
why does Jackson continue to build teams that usually feature mostly homegrown
players with a couple of international players mixed in?

“I
know a lot of my fellow coaches think I’m going about it the hard way,’’
Jackson said. “But I came to Florida because I want to coach Florida guys
first. And we’re doing that. Sometimes maybe it’s a little harder than if we
just got four guys from France, four guys from Germany and two guys from
Florida, but I’ve kind of done that before.’’

Jackson
built up his international contacts during his time at Mississippi State, where
he started out as the women’s coach and later took over the men’s program. The
prep tennis scene is Mississippi is nothing like the lively one in Florida, so
Jackson was forced to load the Bulldogs’ roster with players from overseas with
a heavy emphasis on France.

He
won consistently at Mississippi State, and when Florida looked to replace
former coach Ian Duvenhage after the 2001-02 season, Jackson arrived in
Gainesville with a new philosophy toward recruiting.

In
Duvenhage’s final four seasons, the Gators’ roster often lacked a strong
Florida presence, with 25 of 38 roster spots (65.8 percent) filled by players
from somewhere other than the Sunshine State. Under Jackson, the program has
consistently featured homegrown players, including six of eight on this year’s
team. Over the past four seasons, 22 of 37 roster spots (59.4 percent) have
been players from Florida.

As
Jackson watched the Gators take the court to practice Tuesday afternoon at
Linder Stadium, he saw two players that typify his philosophy: sophomore Billy
Federhofer and freshman Andrew Butz.

Federhofer
grew up in Miami and played at Krop High. Butz was born and raised in Vero
Beach, his father Tom a UF graduate and prominent booster. Both could have gone
elsewhere and played college tennis.

Neither
drew as much recruiting interest as a pair of other in-state players on the
Gators’ roster – sophomore Sekou Bangoura Jr. from Bradenton and Bob van
Overbeek from Boca Raton. Bangoura and van Overbeek were world-class recruits
who everyone was after.

Florida
was lucky to get them. As for Federhofer and Butz, getting players like them to
round out the roster fits the puzzle perfectly in Jackson’s view.

“It’s
those other guys that we really want to identify our program, the guys who love
to be at Florida and would kill for the Gators to be able to win,’’ Jackson
said. “We want to win championships with those guys. That’s what I said was the
goal, and we’re not moving from it.

“We
are going to try and do it that way.’’

Butz
grew up a Florida fan after being introduced to the school by his father on
weekend trips to Gainesville for football games. When it was time for college,
he didn’t have to look long for his home the next four years.

“I’ve
always wanted to come here,’’ Butz said. “I realized from the beginning that
there is a great environment here; everyone loves their sports here.”

Butz
also had the added appeal of knowing Bangoura and the team’s other in-state
players well from competing against them regularly as a junior player. He
estimates that by the time he and Bangoura became UF teammates, they had played
each other probably 25 times.

Meanwhile,
Federhofer didn’t grow up a Gator fan like Butz despite being a native
Floridian. It wasn’t until he was a sophomore in high school and Jackson
started recruiting him that he thought seriously about spending college at UF.

In
his final two years of high school in North Miami, Federhofer kept a close eye
on the men’s tennis program and ended up an easy sell for Jackson.

“It
was the program and everything they had to offer,’’ Federhofer said. “Every
athletic program here is around top 10 in the country and they have won so many
titles. They just treat the athletes very well on top of the academics being
great.

“I
just kept seeing the results and how good they were. I thought the training
here would really help me, and it has really helped me.’’

The
16th-ranked Gators (14-8, 7-4) enter the SEC Tournament expected to contend for
the title with Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky. To win, they’ll need Federhofer
at No. 5 singles and Butz at No. 6 to come through as much as the two
international players on the roster: No. 1 player Alexandre Lacroix and No. 3
Nassim Slilam.

That’s
been the plan all along.

“We
want to recruit Florida first,’’ Jackson said. “We are very proud of our guys
like Federhofer and Butz. I had an unwritten rule that we weren’t going to take
more than three international guys. Basically, it’s been two or three guys most
of the time, and the other guys from the U.S.

“In
Florida, there is unbelievable [junior] tennis, and I think those kids should
be getting opportunities at Florida. It’s something I feel good about and I
think is the right thing to do.’’

TEAM
FLORIDA

Gators
men’s tennis coach Andy Jackson places a large emphasis on building his teams
with in-state players. Here is a look at how UF’s current roster compares to
those of the SEC’s other schools: